"Nobody was surprised up here when he made that throw," Garden City (Kan.) Community College coach Matt Miller said. "You have time on the clock, your team has a chance."

The setup is eerily similar, too. Garden City was trailing Copiah-Lincoln 29-28 (Auburn trailed Georgia 38-37) in need of a last-minute drive for a victory in the Mississippi Bowl. Marshall was injured, his head ringing with a migraine, and he sat out the first play of the drive.

"We asked him to give us one last throw hurting as bad as he was," Miller said.

Marshall entered the game and delivered. He stepped back, toed his own 12-yard line and fired the ball 62 yards in the air.

What followed is so similar to the game-winning pass he completed Saturday on a tipped prayer in the Tigers' 43-38 victory against Georgia, that his former coaches couldn't help but wonder if Marshall is becoming something of a miracle worker on the football field.

Nick Marshall fires a 62-yard pass to Rodriguez Coleman, who caught the tipped pass to set up a game-winning field goal against Copiah-Lincoln on Dec. 2, 2012 at the Mississippi Bowl. (Courtesy Mississippi Bowl)

A receiver was open, briefly, but Marshall's pass, despite its incredible trajectory, was underthrown. The ball hit the out-stretched hands of Copiah-Lincoln defensive back Jeremy Davis. Davis, running toward the left sideline, collided with receiver Rodriguez Coleman as he batted the pass.

Coleman fell to the turf, but so did the ball.

On his back, the football landed on Coleman's left leg and bounced toward his chest for a 62-yard catch with 20 seconds remaining. The play was so unbelievable, the announcer calling the game first said the pass was incomplete.

Garden City then kicked a 33-yard field goal with no time remaining to win the game 31-29.

The Mississippi Bowl play was a hot topic Saturday night in Kansas, where Miller watched Georgia safety Josh Harvey-Clemons tip Marshall's pass, which was then somehow located and snagged by Louis with 25 seconds remaining.

"There was naturally a flashback," Miller said. "That one last night. ... I still have no idea how the receiver saw the football. He's still running when the ball is tipped and he doesn't know where it's at. He caught it with peripheral vision. It's one of the craziest I've ever seen. Maybe the greatest."

The pass was a prayer answered for Louis, who pleaded with Marshall to throw him the football on fourth-and-18. Instead of throwing to an open Sammie Coates underneath, Marshall fired the ball deep on fourth-and-18. Louis somehow located the tipped pass over his left shoulder, bobbled it and held on as he jogged 18 more yards into the end zone. Auburn (10-1, 6-1 SEC) held on to win 43-38 to set up one of the biggest Iron Bowl match-ups in recent memory.

The pass will be long remembered and celebrated by Auburn fans. For Marshall's former coaches, it served as a moment of validation after seeing him win game after game in similar fashion.

"I said some things that maybe some people didn't want to believe about him, but now they see what kind of a kid he is," said Mark Ledford, Marshall's high school coach at Wilcox County, Ga.

Ledford attended the game inside Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. In true Marshall form, the quarterback was jubilant after the throw, but was much more sedated as he left the field and fans celebrated the miracle win.

"You start talking about the best player in the country," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "I think he should be in the conversation."

Ledford walked with Marshall and his family to the quarterback's dormitory after the game.

"He was like nothing had happened," Ledford said. "He was taking pictures with fans and he didn't smile. Well, maybe he did crack a small smile. It wasn't anything. I said to him, 'Nick, do you realize what you just did?'"